FARMINGVILLE

The late 1990s saw a large population of illegal Mexican immigrants desert their home country and take root in the unusual location of Farmingville, New York, in Long Island. Taking menial jobs that were shunned by the local community, the transition was an uneasy one, with rising tensions between the locals and the immigrants resulting in some unpleasant skirmishes. The problems raced to a sad, yet inevitable, conclusion when two Mexican laborers barely escaped an attack with their lives intact, leading to some brutal scenes of protest and violence. Local residents and filmmakers Carlos Sandoval and Catherine Tambini document the sad events in this compelling documentary, offering a startling portrait of a community in peril, which also serves as a damning indictment on the treatment meted out to immigrants in the USA.